The earth in the architecture of the historical centre of Lamezia Terme

In Calabria, as in other regions of Italy, it is difficult to verify the consistence of the patrimony built in raw clay (adobe) because the plasters, that almost always dresses the buildings hangings, doesn't allow to see the underlying material. Only when the layer of external covering starts to be detached for inevitable phenomena of degrade, it becomes the real consistence visible of it. Nevertheless in the common language, with the term "casedde" is designated the houses in raw clay and with the term"casini" or "turri" the house realized in stone or in bricks. This allows to estimate, even though approximate, the presence of the kind of material, also in lacking of a visual check. In the case of buildings with more than a plan, realized with different technologies and different materials, the "census" of the patrimony in raw clay it is very complex. This is the case of the historical centre of Lamezia Terme (Catanzaro-Italy), on the Tyrrenian coast. The ancient nucleus of the town (in the fraction of Sambiase), is an example of urban centre in which there are buildings of 4 or 5 floors, completely or partially realized In earth brick (adobe) connected with mortar made of clay and lime. In the present study mineralogical physical and mechanical characterization, of adobe samples coming from seven different buildings in bad state of conservation has been carried out. Also samples of local earth have been analysed for comparison. The analyses made it possible to verify the absence of interventions of any mixing intervention in the earth excepting not for the addition of straw. Besides the type of composition made it possible to understand the observed decay phenomenologies.